"Roped! I broke loose."
"The red note?"
"I scribbled with a nail, and threw it before she knocked me down. That woman was a demon!"
A pale, yellow glow seemed to body forth from the enshrouding mist. Dawn was breaking. Soon the great river would be alight.
"School-teacher," the girl was murmuring. "A wedding present for her—in Ah Sih King's." A small hand fumbled for his, and found it. "In the back room they began gibbering at me. And this demon came. Meaningless words—Ah Sih King leered. Called me the luckiest woman in China."
"But how did you know?"
An empty freighter with propellers flailing half out of water pounded through the yellow mist close to them.
"Hie! Hie!" shrilled the coolie's warning.
Light seeped through the doorway. The outlines of a dark skirt were silhouetted against the scrubbed white floor.
"He said when I saw the lights of China I would go aboard a beautiful ship. She was watching you. Three times our stateroom was changed. Always at night."